How we built a cheap DIY campervan conversion

In spring 2017, my husband Rhody and I were aching for a change. Renting an apartment was swallowing most of our paychecks and we were both tired of hustling all the time just to break even.

We’d been toying with van life for years, after a two-month stint in a basic Chevy Astro van and a few months in an E-250 with a bed platform in the back. So, we decided to jump in the DIY campervan conversion game.

But where to start?

People with six-figure incomes showing their state-of-the-art upgrades to fresh Sprinter camper vans had me disheartened about hacking it full-time.

Theirs were all polished wood, custom futons, and beautiful cabinetry. I hadn’t touched a power tool since shop class in seventh grade. How could we outfit our old $4,000 E-250 into a livable DIY campervan?

I hadn’t touched a power tool since shop class in 7th grade. How would we turn our van into a home?

By May, we knew we either had to give it a go or sign another year lease we couldn’t quite afford. We wanted to do a budget van conversion and were pumped to learn how.

So with only a few thousand dollars and a few months til our lease ended August 1st, we went for the van life.

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Adding shore power to our DIY camper van conversion

I was nervous about Rhody drilling a hole into the van, but this ended up being one of our most important (and speedy) upgrades.

When we started our cheap DIY campervan build, we agree that solar was a must. Denver gets plenty of snow, however, and there’d be days where panels just wouldn’t do the trick – especially if we wanted to use a space heater while parked in a friend’s driveway.

The solution? Shore power. Rhody bought an RV shore power outlet that allowed us to plug an extension cord in from the outside that could power our appliances and lights.

Then, using a hole saw, he cut through the side of the van, popped the outlet in, and sealed it off with silicone caulk, all in one afternoon.

I’d been really freaked out by the idea of cutting a hole right into the side of our van, but I’m so grateful Rhody just went for it. Shore power was one of the most vital upgrades in our entire DIY campervan conversion.

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How we insulated our DIY campervan conversion

When we built our DIY campervan on the cheap, we did it with Colorado in mind, where it gets down to 0 °F in the winter. We knew there were no cutting corners with our campervan insulation.

When we pulled the walls off, we found fiberglass insulation in good shape, which we set aside to reuse later.

Since the insulation was still in good shape, we reused it after adding Reflectix.

Since we wanted to stay warm, we packed the fiberglass insulation tight and supplemented it with a combo of cellulose insulation from Home Depot and secondhand fiberglass insulation from Resource Central.

Rhody and I were happy with the rigid foam insulation – even if it meant an even lower ceiling.

For the floor and ceiling, we opted for rigid foam insulation, and that was the first time it hit me how tiny our living space was about to be.

Our van was so small that we only needed one panel for the floor and one for the ceiling of our DIY campervan.

Once we got the rigid foam wedged into the ceiling, we were ready to get to work on the floor.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Want to start building out your own camper right now? Check out the Sprinter RV Conversion Sourcebook for a detailed guide on a DIY van build. It applies to any campervan conversion, not just a Sprinter!

Adding flooring to our Ford Econoline DIY campervan

Before getting anything else in, a solid ground was a must. We planned to anchor furniture to the floor and knew the wood floor had to be strong and thick enough to handle potholes or slamming on the brakes.

At Resource Central, we were stoked to find a slab of wood that was over half an inch thick and large enough to fit our entire DIY campervan conversion bed.

To make sure we had the right cut, we made a stencil of the floor using red rosin paper, then traced it onto the wood, which we cut with a table saw and jigsaw.

The raised ridges of our van bed were visible from the back, making it easy to know where to screw in and catch the metal.

Once the wood was in, we screwed it into the raised ridges of our van bed, spacing screws every few inches and being careful to check under the van and make sure we didn’t accidentally hit anything crucial.

Our DIY campervan conversion’s ceiling and walls

Time was not on our side – and neither were our skills – so we were set on reusing the walls and ceiling that came with the van, even though foam from the upholstery clung to it in pieces.

Using a grinder, we shaved off as much remaining foam as we could, but it still wasn’t looking pretty. We’d originally planned to paint or stain the walls, but the tackiness from the stubborn glue left an awkward texture.

Instead, we decided to upholster the walls and ceiling with new fabric.

Our friend Catherine is a wonderful seamstress and helped us pull it off without a hitch. She measured the width and height of the walls and ceiling, leaving plenty of room on each side.

Next, she sewed panels of the fabric together to create single pieces large enough for each wall and ceiling, then ironed the seams flat.

When the fabric was ready, we pulled it taut across both ends of the wood, then used a staple gun to attach it to the backside.

How we put together our DIY campervan’s ceiling

The long stripes and bright white helped open up the space and kept it from feeling cramped.

Installing the ceiling in our Econoline camper came first. Originally, it had fit snug between the roof and the pantry above the cab, but the rigid foam had lowered the ceiling, giving us far less space to squeeze the ceiling in.

We used a jigsaw to shave off the tighter corners at the top of the pantry, and with the help of friends, we managed to squeeze the ceiling board in while aligning the A/C hoses that the van came with.

We screwed the ceiling back into its existing drill holes, cut Xes for the A/C vents and lights, and screwed those back in as well.

Roof in, we were ready for the walls in our Ford Econoline camper. We were one step closer to moving into our campervan!

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How we put in our DIY campervan conversion’s walls

The existing walls on our Ford Econoline campervan were thin and frail, so we strengthened them by attaching two-by-fours that ran down the sides and along the center.

Reinforcing the existing wood was much cheaper and faster than building walls from scratch.

While Catherine was sewing the pieces of fabric together, Rhody cut shelves into the walls, as well as a large hole to fit a medicine cabinet we’d found secondhand.

We upholstered our campervan’s walls the same way we had the ceiling. We left the fabric intact over the holes Rhody had made for shelves, cut an X in each, and tucked the fabric behind a beautiful panel of birch that backed the shelves.

For the medicine cabinet in our DIY camper, it was even more simple. We cut a large X into the square he’d made, slid the cabinet in, and screwed it securely into the wall.

When we went to install the walls in the van, we realized the bolstering two-by-fours made a large gap between these walls and the metal walls of the van.

Rather than letting it be a problem, we seized that opportunity for extra storage by building cabinet doors that hinged upward to store extra things below each window. When closed, they made perfect bookshelves and side tables, but we could open them to access storage and electrical wiring.

How we dealt with our DIY campervan’s wheel wells

With the walls and ceiling in, the wheel wells ensconced in Reflectix stuck out like sore thumbs on our Econoline camper.

Using secondhand wood, we constructed basic boxes to cover them. Like so much of our wood, it was ugly, and painting it or staining it was out of the question.

So, straying from any other, more traditional choice we could have made, we went for astroturf. This is another one of our choices that I wouldn’t do again as my relationship to plastic has evolved. At the time, we thought it was cute (and I still stand by it as an aesthetic choice).

The astroturf was easy to clean, added a pop of color, and was a great way for us to cover up the unsightliness that came with our inexperience.

For anyone curious about other ways to cover up their own mistakes or uneven wood tones, consider cork flooring.

It’s cheap, harvested without killing the tree, and has an R-value of 1.125 (about the same R-value as Reflectix) making it a good insulator.

For us, the astroturf did just fine, and we ended up using it to accent several other places along the way.

Adding flooring to our DIY campervan conversion

The glue needs to become tacky before putting the pieces together for the most secure fit.

Just as we started our project, a neighbor gave us a roll of Marmoleum, an environmentally sound linoleum alternative. It was a beautiful maroon and influenced our entire color scheme.

Once we had the walls in and were ready to beautify the floor, we unrolled the Marmoleum excitedly…only to find we were about two feet short.

As always, we used that to our advantage and picked up a small stretch of black-and-white linoleum that we used to create a different vibe for our kitchen area. For a smooth transition between flooring, we installed a simple brass seam binder. The result was quirky and bright.

To attach the flooring, we used our same glue we’d used for the Reflectix.

All in all, installing the linoleum and Marmoleum in our Econoline DIY campervan took less than a day altogether.

Our Ford Econoline campervan’s solar setup

Up until this point, we’d spent a few hundred dollars on wood, fabric, insulation, and astroturf, but we knew we were heading into the most expensive part of our DIY van build.

Nowadays, Rhody works in the solar industry. He retrofitted our current camper with a solar system and it works like a dream. At the time, however, both of us knew virtually nothing; Rhody packed sauerkraut, and I taught English, so anything involving electricity was downright terrifying to us both.

Although we felt overwhelmed by DIY campervan solar, we also knew it was a must. That’s why we opted for the easiest setup we could find – which was hands down the most expensive part of our build, coming out to around $1700 altogether.

We chose the Goal Zero Yeti 1000 battery, which is a self-contained inverter, converter, and battery in one that holds enough power to run everything we needed, even an Instant Pot, blender, or induction plate. To charge it, we decided to use two Boulder 100 panels. We mounted them on top of the van using brackets.

Rhody then drilled a hole in the back of the van to slide the cords through, which we caulked shut.

The nice thing about the Goal Zero setup and other solar generators is that all you have to do is plug the panels directly into the battery, rather than buying separate converters and inverters, making it easy for people as inexperienced as we were.

Using the Goal Zero is an easy solar setup for beginers.

Now that we’ve learned more about solar, there’s a lot we could have done to save us a pretty penny, but this battery was incredible, and I still miss using my Instant Pot now that my current build can’t handle it.

Choosing the right DIY campervan bed and couch

The seat pulled out and the back flipped down to make a full-size bed.

By this time, we were coming right up against the end of our lease without a place to sleep.

We really wanted a campervan bed design that could become a couch as well. That way, we could have the emotional separation of daytime and bedtime, as well as a little extra room to stretch on the floor.

But making a sleeper sofa in our DIY campervan conversion required time and expertise we just didn’t have. Most futons need to be pushed back from the wall when they are turned into a bed, which wasn’t an option for our narrow cabin, and the other design plans were way too complicated for us.

On the night our lease ended, we had a bed to sleep on in our campervan.

So, with the crunch of time hurting more than the crunch of our budget, we sprang for an IKEA couch that converted into a bed without needing to move out from the wall.

When the couch was pulled open to become a bed, there were two deep storage wells underneath. To make even more space, our friend Houston helped us raise this couch for extra storage, and on the day our lease ended, we built a frame to elevate the bed by about eight inches to slide boxes underneath, which we used as dresser drawers.

And so, on the night that our lease ended, we had a bed to sleep on in our Econoline campervan.

The bed was in, but our work was still cut out for us.

Our DIY campervan conversion’s kitchen

We were grateful to have a place to sleep, but we still needed a place to cook, brush our teeth, and wash our faces in our DIY campervan.

Thanks to our solar and battery rig, we already had a working minifridge we’d picked up from a yard sale. It was small enough to fit between the front seats and was an excellent armrest for when we drove, as well as a place to put the cutting board.

We needed a counter that would fit a sink and house our battery securely; at the time, it was just sitting behind the driver’s seat. Luckily, we found an old cabinet from Goodwill that was the perfect fit and had plenty of space for everything we needed for our campervan kitchen.

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Finishing our DIY campervan conversion doors

Once our necessities were taken care of, we could focus on aesthetics like the doors. For the past few months, they’d been covered with Reflectix, but now it was time to put wood on them.

To make wood pieces that molded to the doors, it took a lot of measuring (and remeasuring). We made stencils on red rosin paper, traced it onto wood, and cut it to fit.

Once we’d finally gotten the pieces right, we had to bend them to the awkward curves of the doors. To do that, we soaked the wood in hot water for several hours, then clamped it to the door and let it dry in place. Once that was done, we glued them down and screwed them in.

This wood was also secondhand and had some old paint splatters on it. To cover them, we used no-VOC paint in a soft yellow to open up the space.

Final touches on our DIY campervan: The fun stuff!

Home sweet home, simplified.

With the doors done, it was finally time for the cute stuff. We hung a vintage curtain for the pantry, installed some cute storage containers above the sink, and put our trinkets in those shelves Rhody had made.

Most importantly, we had blackout curtains made for our windows. These were essential for stealth camping and privacy, as well as much-needed insulation for our van, which had windows on all sides.

If I could do my van build all over again…I would…

It would have been smart to gut and insulate the front cab as well, or find some other solution to help keep us warm. Although we had a floor-to-ceiling insulated curtain, the cab sucked out a lot of the warmth in the winter.

I would install a roof vent. We used a small fan and vented out a side window, which worked, but a roof vent would have made gas cooking an option and been wonderful for hot summer days.

I would be more environmentally conscious. While many of our materials were secondhand, there were places that time, budget, and limited skills got the best of us. Totally zero waste conversions are tens of thousands of dollars (if not impossible), but in my next build, I hope to make wiser choices where I can.

Our van changed our lives and helped us save enough money to buy a truck camper with a bathroom, an oven, and a four-burner stove, which we’ve lived in full-time since January 2018.

Van life changed our lives. Everyone deserves to be set free from rent.

Van life and RVing don’t have to cost thousands and thousands of dollars, and we all deserve to be set free from rent.

What’s your budget like? Do you have van goals? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

About Nikita Andester

In 2015, Nikita and her husband traveled for several months across the country in Bonnie, a 2004 E-250, bathing in nature, exploring sleepy towns, and selling herbal body products at the flea market. In 2017, they renovated Bonnie on a budget and lived in her full-time for five months before upgrading to Doug, their truck camper, where they've lived since January 2018. When she isn't writing articles, Nikita can be found working on her novel, exploring, taking film photos, or cooking up a storm. She also writes for ethical.net.

Comments

This was a great job sugar coated, detailed process of a true conversion. I also like the second thoughts about what would have been done if it was done again. Kudos on the effort put in and thank you very much for the article very helpful on my build that I’m currently working on. Thanks Tony.

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[…] of price. There are luxury Sprinter van conversions that could cost you up to $150,000, or simple DIY cargo van campers that will only be $1,000. There are also campervan conversion kits, which are a combination between […]

[…] on the van life bandwagon, you’re probably wondering what it takes to build out a campervan. A DIY campervan conversion costs way less than hiring a company to build out a van, but what if you’re not handy? That’s […]

Hi, I'm Kristin Hanes! I live in a sailboat and in a van, and am editor-in-chief of The Wayward Home, a site all about a new type of American Dream. Stick around to learn about campervans, RV living, sailboats and tiny homes. Head to my About Me page to learn more.

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